Man pleads to murder in Eight Mile double-fatal crash

A Hazel Park man pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder Tuesday in the death of two passengers in the pickup truck he wildly crashed into a Warren building while heavily intoxicated.

Derek Brame, 26, faces a 14-year prison term when he is sentenced April 1 for the September 2011 crash on Eight Mile Road that killed John Bommarito, 21, of St. Clair Shores, and Kyle Dixon, 26, of Clinton Township.

The plea on the day the case was scheduled to go to trial was made as part of a sentencing deal with Judge Mark Switalski. It had the approval of the parents of both victims who attended the hearing. Several lesser offenses will be dismissed.

“We got what we wanted as far as him taking ownership,” said Nancy Bommarito, mother of John, with tears in her eyes moments after the plea. “I have respect that he stood up and admitted guilt. He manned up.”

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She said she could not sit through a trial because she has been a “basket case” since her son’s death.

“I need to close this chapter so I can heal,” she said.

She said she would have liked to see Brame taken to prison immediately because he has been free for such a long time.

Dixon’s mother, Linda Pryor of Clinton Township, said she agreed with the deal.

“He’s my only son,” she said, choking back tears and clutching a photograph of Dixon. “It’s not going to bring him back. As long as it brings justice.”

Brame, free on a $100,000 bond, appeared in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens wearing a suit with his right arm in a sling from a shoulder injury suffered in the crash.

Prosecutors charged murder due to the extreme recklessness of Brame’s behavior. He was driving Bommarito’s 2004 Ford F-250 truck between 78 and 86 mph in the 45 mph zone when he lost control. The truck veered off the road and struck a building, an oil-change business, which partially collapsed.

Witness Timothy Davis testified at a prior hearing that the pickup truck driver raced up behind him, made an obscene gesture through an open window and passed him at about 80 mph before the vehicle went partially onto the Eight Mile median, west of Ryan Road, and skidded across all westbound lanes before hitting the structure.

Brame’s blood alcohol content was .20 percent shortly after the crash, more than twice the legal limit. Brame in court confirmed that before the 3 a.m. crash he and his companions drank a large amount of alcohol at Hard Rock Café and Players strip club in Detroit before leaving Players on Eight Mile. Bommarito gave him the keys to his truck, he said.

Brame, through his attorney, James Czarnecki, also placed some of the blame on the bar’s servers for continuing to supply them with alcoholic beverages even though they were intoxicated.

The prosecution’s case was strengthened when the Michigan Supreme Court in a 4-3 vote late last year denied the defense’s request to appeal a judge’s ruling that allowed assistant Macomb prosecutor Corey Neuman to present Brame’s two prior drunken driving convictions to the jury. Brame’s license was revoked at the time of the accident.